Celebrations

Warren and Big Guy and I left for a North Carolina visit with my family on the 28th.

With our hectic work and travel schedules, we’re only able to make that trip about once every year or two, so it was nice to gather at a time when we could just simply hang out together.

And though we usually manage to connect at some event around the country, it’s just not the same.

Warren and I were thrilled to see these falling fuel prices!

Everyone gathered to help me celebrate my birthday on the 30th…

Fave and his girlfriend made it into town on the thirty-first, in time to ring in the New Year with us.

We shared a glorious week taking it easy, playing games, watching movies, eating entirely too much food, and celebrating the dawn of a new year…

Missing our girl, Beauty, who is doing an internship over her school break…

Though one nephew and his wife didn’t make it into town until the morning we left, we were able to catch up with them breakfast before we headed back home.

Despite a lingering sense of shame with all the weight I’ve put on in the past five years, I made sure to enjoy myself and refused the voice that chastised me with things like Your children are going to be so embarrassed in years to come and What are they thinking?

Each day I try to remember to celebrate those moments that bring me laughter, love, or light; it’s the premise for this weekly column: just like the proverbial shit happens, happy happens.

Tolstoy said, “If you want to be happy, be.”

The way we do that is by paying homage to those moments that brighten our day.

Another of my happy moments came yesterday as I packed up the boxes of ribbons, wrapping paper, and boxes that I didn’t have a chance to tend to before we left. Though I leave my tree up as long as I possibly can, I packed away the other Christmas decorations.

The process took me most of the day, not because there were that many items to assemble, but because I watched two recorded Christmas movies while I worked.

This year I had several deadlines, like the Hay House book proposal (keep sending out that positive energy, Journeyer!), that kept me from watching these holiday feel-good movies.I’ll continue to watch them here and there throughout the month of January because I like the way they make me feel and because their themes coincide with my desire to spread hope, healing, and happiness.

A week after Christmas I see numerous Facebook status updates purporting joy that the holiday season is over, but for me, much of what the season represents is just beginning…